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Have any of you been to Santa Fe Grill lately? We were out in the South End Saturday and I got the idea of checking it out for the first time in a long time, since we almost always go to El Molcajete due to its excellence. My first thought was that they've really fixed up the interior. Lots more tables, and more of a dining room rather than a takeout counter with just a few tables. Bright and clean, decorated for Christmas. We really found the food kind of disappointing, though. Not actively bad, but consistently "meh." If others agree with this finding, do you think it's gone downhill, or just that we didn't have El Molcajete to compare it with before? I kind of hate to report this, but the difference is striking enough that I feel a need to put it out there and see if others agree.

Santa Fe hasn't felt as special in many years now that you can get good "taqueria" style tacos all over town. During it's prime, it seemed like one of the few places outside of Preston Hwy for that style of food.

Also always bugged me that they served cheap Bagged Round Tortilla chips at the table.

I'll third the above comments. I can't speak to their histories, as my first visits to both were in the last year, but I've made two return trips to the area, both to El. Nothing about Sante Fe struck me as being at all special.

Jeff Cavanaugh wrote:For another good, if slightly different, taqueria option in that general area, check out Bandido Taqueria Mexicana on University Blvd, just the other side of UofL's campus and I-65.

El Molcajete is pretty consistently the best Mexican in town to me. I'd rank Santa Fe below Bandido and even Senor Iguanas. One small knock on El Molcajete is that the food seems to be better at lunch than at dinner.

With all this talk about Mexican restaurants I never hear anybody talking about Cocina de Mama which we really enjoy. I realize it's outside of the Waterson which means many of you would need your passport renewed to get to it but it's worth the trip. The one we go to is on Hurstbourne Parkway at Westport Road but they also have one in Shelbyville.

We've really like everything we've tried there. I especially like their Chili Rellenos although quite often I have their specials which are always good and usually quite a bargain.

I forgot to add that there Salsa some of the best I've ever had and that includes some very good Salsa we had in Colorado, Arizona and New Mexico. It's probably a good lay don't sell it because we would go broke buying it.

El Molcajete is top 5 in the city for me, no question. Also seconding Bandido's, and heck, Coconut Beach is basically in the same neighborhood too. Santa Fe, while the service is friendly, just isn't as good as those options.

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